Sunday August 5 9:04 AM ET

Oman Asks U.S. Experts to Help in Oil Well Leak

MUSCAT (Reuters) - State-run Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) said on Sunday it was flying in U.S. experts to help control an oil spill at a well in central Oman.

``Experts from Houston, Texas will arrive tonight and they will be at the site tomorrow to help the team that is trying to stop the spill,'' the PDO's external affairs manager Mansour al-Amry said.

Amry noted that the spill would not affect the non-OPEC (news - web sites) producer's oil and gas output and the company was trying to minimize the environmental damage.

An oil well in Zauliyah started spilling oil on Saturday at the rate of 2,000 barrels a day, PDO spokesman Andrew Caley said earlier on Sunday.

``The oil is still coming out today and it's too early to say when the spill will be contained. Nobody was hurt and we have already put dykes and trenches to reduce environmental damage,'' Caley added, without saying what had caused the damage.

Oman is an independent producer pumping some 900,000 barrels a day of crude oil.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2001